[center][h3]Insight[/h3]

[i]A Green Storm Production[/i][/center]
[hr]
[i]18th Sun’s Height, afternoon[/i]

It was hard to keep a smile off her face. So far, Megana had been having a rather lovely day. Breakfasting with an old friend, chatting with a new one- what could be better than that? She didn’t think anything, not while she felt so elated. She knew things still had a long way to go before finally returning to what was normal- the holes left by their missing friends could be felt no matter how anyone tried to disguise it or just plain ignore it. However, she knew she had to keep thinking positively, keep seeing what good was still there. Besides… [i]she[/i] was still here, and it would take a mammoth dragging her away to keep her from her friends.

Weaving through the tents, her mind busy with thoughts of her companions as well as wondering whether she should eat something now or perhaps later as she was still not completely hungry, the Nord woman nearly missed seeing the Dunmer sitting by a tent, eating something. The only reason Meg hadn’t missed her was due to the red hair that was so unfamiliar, reminding her less of roaring flames now and more of flickering embers.

“G’day!” she greeted, waving a hand as she made her way over. She hadn’t exactly had a chance to talk to Ivy last night, yet still found herself in awe- Meg wanted to know more about this strange, wonderful woman. 

"Well hello!" Ivy replied with a smile, her chin pointed upwards as she gave a gentle wave of her hand - jewelry dancing around her slender wrist. "If it isn't Megana the Kind, I am honoured," she added, that same hand rolled in circles as she lowered her head in a graceful bow. "Come and sit! Share that good mood with me…" 

"Oh, psh..." Meg couldn't help but chuckle, a hint of rose tinging her cheeks as she heard that epithet that seemed to have caught on among some of the others she had passed by today. It embarrassed her yet at the same time she couldn't help but feel a little proud of herself and the rest of their group- they had done deeds that people only sang of in songs or wrote tales about.

"Thankies, I shall!" Wiping at the heat on her face with the back of her hand, she settled down just a little away from Ivy, sitting cross legged. "It's uhm, it's good t'see you again. I'm guessin' you've been here long?"

The Dunmer's head tilted to the side and her crimson eyes narrowed. "You know… I don't really know exactly how long, a month at least," she chuckled, biting into a strawberry. "Let me think… Well when I arrived the Mage had fled and made way for the Shadow, and now we see in the stars the Apprentice… So yes, a month or so," she smiled, offering a strawberry to the young woman. 

"When you live as many years as I have, time becomes… Well, you view it quite differently I suppose." Ivy said with an air of maturity, and yet her smile so full of youth and her eyes sparkled with zest. "Now, my dear darling Calen's song, from what I heard you have been travelling with them for some time, hmm?" 

There was a look of extreme confusion that passes over Meg's face as she took the strawberry offered to her, mentally repeating what Ivy had said, or at least trying to while she took a bite of the small red fruit. "Ah!" she finally exclaimed once she had chewed and swallowed. "Now I know whatchu were talkin' about…" She paused in her words, wondering how old the Dunmer woman was. She knew Mer aged differently than men did, but was in by much?

"Oh yeah," she added, nodding as she finished off the rest of the strawberry, playing with the leaf she had plucked off the top. "I mean, it's been since..." She tried to remember the date, forehead scrunched in concentration before smoothing over as she waved it off. "... months, outside've Skyrim. Cyrodiil an' Hammerfell. A bunch've us met in the mountains, Skingrad… Gilane. An' now we're back home. Well, my home. Ah, well, home of the Nords I s'pose. I was born in Riverwood."

"Oh! I've been there a number of times. What a quaint place," Ivy said with a wide smile, thinking fondly of it. "I've heard a lot about Gilane. Well, from your friends… That you were there. You all seem to speak of it…" Ivy's eyes slowly until they were closed, and she took in a deep breath of the clear, Skyrim air. "And now you're home once more, what is next?" 

"We do talk lots 'bout there, don' we?" Meg looked a little embarrassed. "Guess it's 'cause so much seemed t'have happened there.. life changin' really." She chewed momentarily on her lip before shaking her head and shrugging her shoulders. "I dunno... I mean I'm home but I can't just stay put, y'know? I promised I'd stay an' help my friends stop the Dwemer... so this is just really a small break before goin' off an' doing whatever we gotta do next."

“Ah!” Ivy replied with closed eyes, “and what is it you’d [i]like[/i] to do Megana the Kind, while you’re here?” the Dunmer asked inquisitively, partly to make polite conversation, and an equal part of simple curiosity and a desire to continue learning about her new friends. 

"I'm not too sure, t'be honest," Meg replied with a small shrug. Falkreath seemed like a haven among a nightmare, but was it really alright for her to stay here too long while they had a task at hand? The truth was that right now, with their group having lost three friends, it was hard to know [i]what[/i] she had to do. 

[i]Well, we've only been here a li'l bit, no need t'get all up in arms 'bout' it.[/i]

"I think maybe I'm just gonna wander here an' there an' see what comes t'me," she finally replied, eyeing the Dunmer. "What 'bout you?" It wasn't too rare to see Dunmer in Skyrim, at least not for Meg who had met all sorts of people during her childhood, but she too was curious how and why Ivy had ended up here. "How’d you end up in Falkreath?"

“Just wander and see, huh?” Ivy asked, blinking in Meg’s direction. She brought her thumb to her lower lip and pressed at it. “Really… that’s how I found myself here! I just wandered and chased the stars. Truthfully I think I was sent here by someone, or something… I followed an idea, a dream…” Her eyes narrowed and looked like flickering embers. “But who can say for sure? All I know is I’m glad I did - because how else would I have gotten to meet Megana the Kind!” She grinned, taking another strawberry and eating it - stalk and all. 

“I think that you’re very special Meg, never lose that which makes you, well, [i]you[/i]!” Ivy added, giving the young Nord a cheerful smile. 

“Oh… there ain’ nothin’ too special ‘bout me,” Meg hastily replied, feeling a little embarrassed at the compliment. “There’re other really nice folk around, an’ I probably wouldn’ be as I am now if it weren’ for them.” She smiled, though there was a hint of sadness there. “A couple of them aren’ here, an’ I dunno if I’m even going to see them again…” Her voice trailed as she continued to fiddle with the leaf from the strawberry top, turning it this way and that. “Brynja, Fjolte… they’re Nords like me. Brynja we lost in Gilane. Fjolte was gone when I got back with Zaveed.” She let out a big, loud sigh before attempting a proper smile. “But he’s with his family, an’ that’s a good thing, eh? I kinda hope I can find my family too, once all of this is done an’ over with.”

Ivy tilted her head at that, and placed a hand down on the grass beside her. “Your family? Well of course,” she blinked happily - trying to picture just where Meg came from, what kind of relatives she had. A big family, most likely. A big family indeed. Ivy blinked again, “how long has it been since you saw your family?”

“It’s been…” Meg rubbed the back of her head as she tried to think over that. “More than a few months for sure, feels like years though. I left ‘em before all this started, in Whiterun.” Her mouth pulled to the side in contemplation, wondering how they must be, but then she hastily forced herself to smile. She didn’t want to see dark and gloomy around this friendly woman. “My ma went off t’Sovngarde when I was a li’l kid, so I grew up with my Pa. We moved aroun’ some but ended up in Whiterun… I have a step-ma an’ a kid brother, Sylven.” She wondered if he grew at since she had seen him.

“Pa used t’be a soldier in the Imperial army b’fore he came over t’Skyrim an’ met Ma,” she continued. “I’m pretty damn sure they must’ve gotten outta Whiterun fine.” [i]Stendarr, make my wish be true, please.[/i] 

“Maybe they made it here!” Ivy suggested with a smile, leaning closer to Meg. “Lots of families fled and found themselves here…” her eyes narrowed and she glanced around, leaning closer still to whisper in Meg’s ear; “lots of cheeky children running around…” Then she giggled. 

"You- you think?" Meg turned to look Ivy straight in the face, trying to find something that told her that maybe what she was saying was the absolute truth. "My brother, he's..." Meg's voice wavered to a stop, realizing that she honestly did not know much about her little brother. When she had gone on her own adventures, he had been a baby, barely able to sit by himself. Her infrequent visits home showed her a different sibling that the one she had seen previously. 

"I hope he's one of those children," she admitted, eyes shifting away from the Dunmer's visage so that she was looking at the ground. "I know I should have the hope that they'd be aroun', it's just kinda scary t'think maybe it might not be like tha, y'know? Kinda buildin' up hope an' then havin' it not be true is kinda scary..." She felt sheepish even as she said it, shaking her head.. "I shouldn' be saying stuff like that..."

Sensing Meg’s upset, Ivy wrapped her arms around the young woman and gave her a comforting squeeze. “You can say whatever you like to me, if it’s in your heart you have to say it,” she smiled, pulling out of the hug to meet Meg’s eyes. “There’s all kinds of children, like I said… One in particular that I found once in my tent looking through my things!” she huffed, but with no ill-intent. “Cheeky of him, but I let him keep a bracelet or two,” she giggled again, her voice quieting to a hush.

“A lot of families camped over there-” Ivy said, pointing a long finger in the opposite direction, towards the other side of Falkreath. “Of course, some of them are in the inns too… But most over there,” Her ruby red eyes caught Meg’s again, and she gave the woman’s arm a nudge. “You should go, and if you’re scared then maybe take a friend.”

Green eyes following in the direction Ivy pointed, Meg took in a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds before slowly breathing out. She then nodded, allowing some confidence to creep within her, even if it was simply borrowed for the time being. The day had gone well, what with meeting Daro'Vasora and Do'Karth. 

"You're right," she replied, smiling at Ivy- this time it was a natural one that wasn't partially forced or tinged with any other emotion. She reached out and took hold of Ivy's hand, squeezing it. "Thank you. I'mma do what you said." Letting go of the woman's hand, she got to her feet. She could do this, she owed her father that much.

Besides... [i]"Vaba do'shurh do."

It is good to be brave.[/i]